23 January 2025
In an article published on 1 January 2025, CNN’s Style Producer describes how the design principles for the 270,000-square-foot building reflect the academic vision of facilitating greater collaboration and engagement across the Department of Biology and the Department of Experimental Psychology.
The article highlights the way that ‘flexible lab spaces accommodate the needs of the different disciplines, while a public plaza offers the chance of more casual interactions’.
Designed by architects NBBJ to incorporate leading sustainability features throughout, including Passivhaus principles for energy efficiency and low carbon, the building incorporates future-fit teaching, research and innovation facilities with community-focused spaces that will connect it to surrounding parkland and pathways.
Professor Chris Kennard, the University of Oxford’s Senior Responsible Owner for the project, said:
It has been incredibly satisfying to see our vision for The Life and Mind Building coming to fruition over the last three years, and it’s wonderful that just months away from completion it is already attracting international attention.
The Life and Mind Building is an Oxford University Development project, delivered in partnership by Legal & General and the University of Oxford, working with contractors NBBJ London, Arup and Wates Construction.
This landmark development, situated at the gateway to Oxford’s Science Area, is on track to fully open by the end of 2025.
Darius Umrigar, Science and Higher Education Practice Leader at NBBJ, said:
We are immensely proud to have had this extraordinary opportunity to design cutting-edge, adaptable and highly specialised spaces where the full breadth of life sciences can be explored and studied collaboratively.
NBBJ’s Design Principal, Ingo Braun, added:
Our design aspires to celebrate and nurture life itself, both within and around the building, fostering a healthy, inclusive environment that inspires and empowers academics, industry professionals, students and the public alike.
The Life and Mind Building features in CNN’s 2025 list of architectural projects set to change the world, alongside developments such as The Grand Ring, centrepiece for the forthcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan; the Riyadh Metro project in Saudi Arabia; the South Station redevelopment in Boston, USA; the 3018-foot-long Danjiang Bridge in Taipei, Taiwan; and Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Read CNN’s article in full
